Polestar, a Swedish car marque currently owned by Geely (China), has made some ripples at the Shanghai Auto Show 2023 with the premiere of its next EV named simply the 4. Having been designed from the blank slate, the SUV lacks some basic things like a tailgate glass. It is also the marque’s most powerful production car to date.
With an agile and dynamic exterior, the Polestar 4 looks much rather like a hatchback than a crossover SUV. It sports the company’s signature lights, albeit slightly reconfigured, and a new bumper. The shoulder line also comes across as rather unusual.
There is no rear window, because the design team decided to present the second-row passengers with ‘a different experience’. A reversing camera built into the roof projects its image onto the rearview mirror, and panoramic roof is included in the base trim level.
Inside, there is a 10.2-inch dash screen, a 15.4-inch head unit, a 14.7-inch heads-up display, leather trim all around and a Harman Kardon audio system. You can order extra speakers built into the headrests. Going for a semi-autonomous driving system adds 25 different sensors and cameras. The Polestar 4 can switch lanes automatically once you indicate a turn, among other things.
The base spec uses a single electric motor and has 272 PS (268 hp / 200 kW) at its disposal. A more expensive version is available with two motors and 544 PS (536 hp / 400 kW) at its disposal. It can sprint 0-100 km/h (0-62 mph) in 3.8 seconds. Both versions use the same battery pack holding up to 102 kilowatt-hours of juice. The dual-motor SUV gets 560 km (348 miles) of range out of it.
The production is slated to begin at the Geely factory in China, with the domestic sales penciled in for November. The Polestar 4 will reach Europe and North America in 2024.